In Cambodia, there are so many new stimuli, that my tiny brain is at odds as to what relay first. However, there have been a couple of indirect requests as to more information about what exactly I spend my time doing at LSCW and so here goes. To start with I will tell you some of the frustrations of working in Cambodia so that I can end on a high note. This of course comes with a a caveat - that unless you work for yourself and can wholly dictate what you do, how and when you do it, and therefore how much income you generate, then there are bound to be challenges - developing country or not!
Impressions
There are not too surprisingly many NGOs in Phnom Penh battling against the ramifications of Cambodian's fractured history and extreme poverty. Outreach has selected a number of worthwhile and meaningful projects out of a very mixed bag. So what does worthwhile and meaningful actually mean? Well my interpretation of this would be that in the context of a country where just about anyone can set up an NGO, Outreach selects those projects which are legitimate and truly seeking to achieve what the stated aims are. LSCW definitely falls into this category. Another core feature of the project and the Outreach approach is that an aim is to ensure that the volunteer's impact is sustainable. There is no real point in working in Cambodia and developing your own skills, only to leave your Cambodian colleagues bereft once you have left. The point is that you can transfer your skillset to them and they can then duplicate this a thousand times over when you move on. I can think of one particular example of this at LSCW. I was due to get involved in a project relating to the plight of women and children in prison.
Basically women who are incarcerated, often either give birth in prison or take their children into prison with them. I have been reliably informed by one of my colleagues that each family unit has a food allowance of 1500 riels a day to live on. Roughly translated this is under half a dollar a day to feed a family - and even in the Cambodian context of cheaper food, and a certain creative resourcefulness it cannot come close to providing a healthy nutritional diet for one, let alone a family unit. I did not ultimately get involved with this project as it was deemed that Khmer people should be actively involved in the field research. As much as I wanted to get involved, I do think the right decision was made. Soren is therefore now bodding about the provinces getting invaluable experience doing field research, accompanied by Vidjia, a post grad with more knowledge than me about human rights.
Part of the problem for NGO workers appears to be that there are a number of people employed either as volunteers or on short term contracts, and as a result, the NGO workers spend a certain amount of time getting to grips with the myriad of issues and then move on. Progress is therefore slow. It is quite tough if you have any idealistic bones in your body to feel that you are achieving anything in real terms. However it is very worthwhile remembering that the cumulative effect of a series of tiny impacts can create a very slow cascading domino effect, which over decades can inspire positive change. Rory (see previous blog) did say that he has been in Cambodia for years and that it has changed significantly in that time. Therefore I see no reason why it cannot change again and again. The physical landscape reflects this. PP morphs on a daily basis with new concrete blocks and cranes appearing on the skyline. They then disappear and reappear further along the river front in a different guise.
In my two and a bit months so far, I have realised that there is a huge amount of research carried out in Cambodia into systemic issues. Research tends to take a two-pronged attack. On the one hand it looks at the overarching problems, and the gaps (sorry, chasms) that need closing / addrfessing and on the other it looks at how to deal with the practical problems on a day-to-day basis in real time.
This reminds me of a student friend in the UK who refused to give to homeless people living under the arches in Manchester. His rationale was that if he gives to the homeless, it obviates the need for the government to take responsibility for what is really its job. Obviously the poverty and homelessness issues prevailing in the UK are not in the ballpark of the ballpark of the scale that they exist in Cambodia. However, the need to address the practical as well as the systemic issues is comparable, and is a very testing juggling act. And it is not too surprising that I have met a lot of people in Cambodia who are jaded and sometimes embittered by the constant obstacles that prevent their ideals from translating into reality. There is also part of me that believes that there is a certain sort of personality that needs to feel as if it is struggling and being challenged constantly.
Day-to-day
Work at LSCW is interesting and varied, albeit a bit adhoc. I am a regular attendee at conferences which are held at 5* hotels (Himawari and Cambodiana, to name but two). The conferences deal with subjects such as the issues of domestic workers, migration and human trafficking - and effectively brainstorm how to create change at grassroots and national level. Very often the solutions involve finding effective ways of awareness raising - empowering individuals to know, understand and have the confidence to assert their legal rights. My contribution at these conferences is largely offering my barang opinion and ensuring that the English used is appropriate and conveys the right meaning.
I have also been involved in assisting my colleagues with the creation of presentations for use abroad. I am not an expert in international human rights law nor can I speak Khmer, Thai or Japanese. However, I can and have researched the relvant laws and been able to assist in creating presentations which will stand up to the scrutiny of an international forum. My Director here at LSCW told me only the other day that one part of my presentation that I had assisted with relating to Cambodia's most recent anti-trafficking law (2008) had been praised and borrowed by a Thai professor. Not bad.
Needs assessment (meeting 1)
There are also a number of internal meetings where my input has been welcomed. Out of these, there are two of note. The first involved some US students who were conducting some novel research into the psychological needs of those people working with or in close proximity with those who have suffered abuse - for example, women who have trafficked, have been subjected to sexual violence or acid attacks or men who have been victims of trafficking. Invariably and understandably, research typically focuses on the victims themselves. This needs assessment research involved NGO workers self reflecting and considering whether or not they are personally negatively affected by their constant exposure to the darker side of human nature and its impact. The students handed out a questionnaire which posed questions designed to establish the nature and extent of the anticipated impacts on the individual workers. The results of the questionnaire were then analysed and trends identified. Once the trends had been identified, then the students were be able to offer practical advice as to how to decrease the impact of any stress factors etc.
This research did raise a lot of questions: is it different for Khmer people? How do linguistic differences affect what people are feeling - (i.e English has the largest vocabulary in the world and can therefore express more specifically the nature of someone's feeling) Khmer people are very honest and overtly emotional, does this mean they feel the impact more deeply than Westerners who are typically more tightly buttoned - or conversely are they more used to it and have therefore generated more developed more ways to cognitively deal with any impact? Unfortunately, the students agreed that the research did raise these issues and that there would be follow up research to drill down further beyond any basic trends identified.
(Two weeks ago I visited an orphanage brimming with children, all of whom have been diagnosed as HIV postive. There was no way you could avoid their condition, as the physical evidence of sores covered over with a purple liquid would raise questions of even the most oblivious. One of our group was affected by the visit - and disappointed in her reaction believing it be weak and naieve. Wouldn't it be worse not to have reacted at all? Surely it would be unusual to witness a child, with a life expectancy which you have already exceeded, lying in a doorway of a dirty dormitory with two wrought iron beds in it, and not to feel something? I have lived briefly amongst HIV positive children before, and so was prepared for what the visit would entail, but nonetheless, some images are hard to digest).
Multi-jurisdictional issues (meeting 2)
I was also invited to attend a meeting with some Korean lawyers who were conducting their own research into marriage between Korean and non-Koreans. They wanted to lobby their government to bring in laws which address the various concerns that are raised when there is a multi-cultural marriage, namely internet brides, trafficking, property rights etc. Armed with the available Cambodian law and a Cambodian colleague we discussed their position and how we could assist them in achieving their aim. In a nutshell, if they could deduce evidence to their authorities that certain legal principles had been established in Cambodia and elsewhere in SE Asia, then they stood a chance of being able to ensure equivalent laws were passed in their own country. That was the theory anyway.
Today
Right now I am in an internet cafe not far from home and in the near vicinity of manhole. I am waiting on a call from my director to say that she will be coming to pick me up to discuss a funding application, which LSCW is making in the hope that it will be able to conduct some research into women's empowerment issues. No Hash Harriers for me today, but this application needs to be in very soon and extra effort is required. Work at LSCW is a bit sporadic but when it does come it is actually important on a very human level. Next to my desk I have three files of cases of human trafficking in Thailand and Malaysia -members of the missing's families have approached LSCW for help in finding their family members, each of whom have disappeared abroad having left Cambodia in search of a better life. This is not a time for procrastination.
No comments:
Post a Comment